Crescendo de Callisto
by Sharon'Greene
Summary: A bit of back story on Gren. Spike goes back to Callisto to take in a bounty, what he gets is a headache and a whole lot of questions.


"Jupiter Blues"

"They call her the crying angel. Not one bounty hunter has been able to take her in." the bartender whispered to Spike.

"How did she get away?" The woman they were talking about was drinking a glass of warm water. She didn't look like she could take a hit, much less give one.

"She didn't, they just let her go."

"Why?"

"They didn't have the heart to throw her in prison." Spike watched her stand up and take a place in the middle of the bar. She picked up a flute and began to play. The entire place went silent. The notes came lilting and soft, sweetly drifting and hanging on the air.

_That song. It's from the music box. How does she know it? Her hair is so much like Julia's. Does she know Vicious?_ The song ended. She put down the instrument, and took her place at the bar. She wrapped herself up in an old trench coat, that couldn't possibly be made for a woman. Talk resumed around the bar. She finished her water. Then she got up and went out into the gathering snow. Spike watched the door after she left, two men got up and left._ Trouble._ He left the bar, and slid into a side alley.

She was walking very slowly down the middle of the snow covered alley. She heard the two men behind her, and stopped. She didn't turn around, she just stopped. The snow falling around her golden hair made her appearance live up to half of her nickname. The men rounded on her. "What have we here?"

"You're a pretty little thing, what's a woman who looks like you doing on Callisto? I think you should come with us." the man ran a hand through her wavy hair. He grabbed her arm. The other one was about to join his friend when out of nowhere the man on her arm was suddenly on his back.

She looked down at the man on the ground. "You picked the wrong night to act on foolish fantasies. What would Julia say?" she turned to the other one. "And you, are you going to have a try or will you leave me in peace?" The man was extremely upset that she hurt his acquaintance.

"You bitch, you hurt my brother." he came at her. She sighed as though she was bored or tired, and moved gracefully out of the way. The man ran headlong into the brick building behind her.

"I would be very much obliged if the man in that side alley would come out, and get this over with, I'm rather tired." Spike couldn't believe his ears. He stepped out. "Okay, I'm ready." she said sadly.

"I don't want to fight you. I want to ask you where you learned that song." She visibly relaxed, but a sad look came over her face. "Did Vicious teach you that?" Her expression became pained.

"I don't know who you are, or how you know Vicious, but if you think for one minute that I would even allow him to be near me you're crazy." she had silent tears on her cheeks. "It was not he who taught me, but the one he gave the music box to. That stupid music box." she turned and began walking again.

"Wait," he came up next to her. "How did you know Julia?" She sighed.

"Please, why are you doing this? I don't need to go through this again, she's gone, and so is he." she turned and looked up at him pleading with her eyes. Then she gasped. "Your eyes...they're different colors. You can't be...You're not..._him_ are you?"

"Who?"

"The one that Julia loved."

"That would be me." He watched her blink tears out of her eyes. "Why are you crying?"

"Because, Julia said that you would never think to look for her here, and then, after she's gone...you came." She looked at her feet, and put her hands into the pockets of that overly large coat. "Julia used to go see Gren play."

"You knew Gren?"

"Knew him? I loved him. We were together before that damned war." Tears began flowing again.

"What happened?"

"Vicious. I was pregnant before Gren left, you know? Did it matter to Vicious? Of course not. Gren wrote to me, told me about this wonderful comrade...you know who it was. Told me he gave him a music box. After the war ended Gren was taken to court for being a spy...because of that gift...he didn't know it then, of course. Julia told him he ought to look some years later. He was thrown in prison, mostly thanks to the testimony of Vicious. He was so confused, hurt, and betrayed. He wrote letters debating it with me...asking how someone he thought was so close could do this. Then the prison starting testing this new drug on it's prisoners. It was very addictive, Gren became a junkie. I went to the prison almost everyday, the guards didn't want me to see what...what...became of Gren. The drug did something to his hormones...turned him into something supernatural. He was the same and yet different. He began to prefer men, and his body changed drastically. He no longer felt for me the way I did for him. He was ashamed of what he had become. I tried to tell him we could work through it...we could make it better. He couldn't bring himself to believe me. All of the heartbreak, the strain, the stress; it was just too much. I lost my baby..." she couldn't go on, she began sobbing.

"You had a miscarriage?" She nodded, with her face pointed towards the dirty, ice covered ground. "If you two were so much in love what happened?"

She composed herself as much as could be expected, and answered. "He said he still loved my mind, but it would be unfair to me to live in a relationship with without physical contact. I told him it wasn't so, that I would look past it...I would have...but, he told me it was the right thing to do. He was so..." she stated crying again. "He was so upset about the baby, but he wondered if it wasn't better this way. Prison broke him, drugs nearly killed him...he had to get out. They wouldn't even allow him his saxophone. So he got out...he escaped, earning himself a bounty, and a lonely life on Callisto. It was the best place to hide out, un-hunted. I followed him there...a lonely and broken woman. Everything I loved was taken away from me...and I wanted to end it all. Now I'm going home to where he used to live, I'm so tired I can't stand up straight." She turned and left. Her wings were almost visible...the crying angel wept.

"So you couldn't catch her?" Jet demanded, as he punched at the keys on his computer.

"It wasn't a matter of not being able to."

"Spike Spike, how come you didn't take Ed? She would have gotten her." Edward chorused as her did a flip onto the couch. Spike shook his head and didn't answer.

"I'm going to go work on my ship." Spike announced, to no one.

"What's wrong with it?" Jet returned.

"I don't know, maybe nothing, I'm just looking it over." He bowed out of the room and made his way down the shaft to where the vessels were kept. He felt weighted down, and tired, but he knew it wasn't because he wished for sleep. He climbed into the cockpit of his ship, and sank into the seat.

"Where have you been?" Faye demanded in her suspicious and loud voice.

"On Callisto."

She froze. "What were you doing there?"

"What's it to you?"

She pointed her nose in the air and answered him with put-on indifference. "Nothing at all."

"If you say so." He was amused; he could see that she was fighting with herself internally. She did want to know more. After he had his fun with watching her struggle he gave her a trace of an answer. "I was after a bounty head."

"I should have known when you came here empty-handed."

"If you want to play that game..." He didn't get the chance to finish...she walked out of the room.

_"Gren? This is the new student I told you about. She'll need help finding her way about the school. Will you show her around?"_

_"Of course."_

_"Thank you, Grencias." He watched the teacher walk away, then turned to face the girl he'd been entrusted. She was so small...more than a foot shorter than he. And beautiful. Such blue eyes, her hair was gleaming and wavy...the color of wheat. He bowed to her. She returned his gesture._

_"My name is Gren," he said as he shook her hand. "Who is your teacher?"_

_She looked down at her schedule and answered._

_"Okay, I know where that is." Then walked down the hall together. "So where did you move here from?" Gren inquired, having never left the planet he was on._

_ "Titan." she answered, while straitening her school uniform. Gren watched her carefully. "What's in the case?" she asked quietly._

_"This is my sax." he lifted the box up in gesture. "I could play for you after school if you'd like." he thought he was doing a nice job not sounding anxious._

_She looked up at him. He noted how her head was slightly tilted to the side, and how her eyes were locked onto his. He wondered what was going through her mind at that moment. "That would be wonderful, Gren." _


End file.
